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MAN IN THE NEWS; ISRAELI MODEL OF ENDURANCE: SHIMON PERES

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Shimon Peres, who was chosen today to form a new Israeli Government, has arrived at the high point of his political career after years of bruising struggle, much of it within his own Labor Party. The Prime Minister- designate, who turns 61 years old Aug. 16, began his work in the Government as a close aide of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, whom he served for 12 years, most of them in the Defense Ministry.

It was a period of rapid advancement, but it was also marked by sharp criticism of Mr. Peres, who is known as a compulsive worker who rarely sleeps more than four hours a night.

He lists books as his hobby, and delights in quoting from them in speeches. His opponents, on the other hand, have over the years delighted in characterizing Mr. Peres as a schemer and a man without real political convictions.

Much of the criticism of Mr. Peres dates back to the early 1950's, when Mr. Ben-Gurion put him in charge of some of the Prime Minister's most delicate political projects. Mr. Peres, then in his 30's, operated with the full authority of Mr. Ben-Gurion, with the result that he sometimes bypassed responsible Cabinet officials. Meir Reportedly Infuriated

Golda Meir, then Foreign Minister, was said to have been infuriated when she learned of Mr. Peres's secret missions to develop ties with African countries and of his visits to France and West Germany on military purchasing trips. He was also criticized for clandestine dealings with France on the construction of Israel's first atomic reactor, in the Negev.

At another point, critics assailed Mr. Peres for appropriating Defense Ministry funds to establish a chain of technology-based military industries that later branched out into the manufacture of consumer goods.

Some of the most wounding blows in Mr. Peres's career were struck years later, particularly by Yitzhak Rabin, the last Labor Prime Minister, who appointed Mr. Peres to his Cabinet - a decision Mr. Rabin said he had come to regret. Among other scathing comments about his former colleague in his memoirs, Mr. Rabin wrote that he could not believe a word that Mr. Peres said.

Mr. Peres's feud with Mr. Rabin may go back to 1959, when Mr. Rabin was appointed chief of the operations branch, the second highest position in the Israeli Army, and complained of what he called Mr. Peres's excessive authority in the Defense Ministry. Sniping Within the Party

There was also resentment elsewhere in the party establishment over what was described as Mr. Peres's having been ''parachuted'' into Parliament in 1959 on Mr. Ben- Gurion's orders, ahead of veterans whom party regulars considered more deserving. Mr. Peres's detractors could not fault his Zionist background, which was impeccable. He was born in Poland Aug. 16, 1923, to Isaac and Sarah Persky, and emigrated to Palestine in 1934. His father, a businessman, kept that family name, but Shimon and his brother Hebraized it to Peres (his name is pronounced SHEE-moan PEAR-ez).

At the age of 20, he was elected secretary of the Labor Youth Movement. In 1947 his career as a kibbutz farmer in Galilee ended when he was invited by Levi Eshkol, a future Prime Minister and then in charge of obtaining arms for the Jewish underground, to serve as an aide. With the proclamation of independence the following year, Mr. Peres emerged as an aide in the Defense Ministry.

He married the former Sonia Gelman, and they have three children, a daughter who teaches linguistics and two sons, one an agronomist and the other an air force pilot. Rising in Defense Ministry

After independence, Mr. Peres was sent to the United States as head of an Israeli defense mission. He used his three years there to take courses at New York University and Harvard. In 1952 he returned to Israel as Deputy Director General of the Defense Ministry and the next year was promoted to Director General, the top post, at the age of 29.

When Mr. Ben-Gurion quit the Labor Party to form the rival Rafi Party for the 1965 elections, Mr. Peres followed his mentor. He served one term in Mr. Ben-Gurion's party and then returned with others to Labor in a separate Rafi faction. Mr. Peres held a series of lesser portfolios in Governments led by Mr. Eshkol and Mrs. Meir.

He made a bid for power, trying to fill a void after the top Labor leaders, including Mrs. Meir and Mr. Dayan, were discredited because of the armed forces' unpreparedness for the 1973 war. An influential party member, Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, recruited Mr. Rabin to block him. Mr. Rabin won the nomination and the election and appointed Mr. Peres Defense Minister.

In 1977, Mr. Rabin again defeated Mr. Peres for the party nomination, but the Prime Minister later dropped out after it was reported that he and his wife had violated Israeli law by keeping dollars in a Washington bank after he left his post as Ambassador there in 1973. The nomination fell easily to Mr. Peres, but he took the helm of a party in disarray and ultimately lost the election in the first Labor defeat in Israel's history.

As opposition leader, Mr. Peres was regarded by many of his colleagues as too mild-mannered in style and unnecessarily restrained in discussions of such subjects as foreign relations and security. Rebuilding the Party

He was unrestrained in his efforts to rebuild his party and develop his own power base, bringing many new faces into the organization. A reporter seated near him at a Central Committee meeting noted that he greeted by name everyone who passed. Mr. Peres also always found time to attend weddings and bar mitzvahs in the families of party members.

He reaped the fruits of his party friendships before the 1981 national elections, when he defeated Yigal Allon, who was backed by Mr. Rabin, for the party's nomination. But Mr. Peres narrowly lost the election to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, leader of the Likud bloc.

As a two-time election loser, Mr. Peres was under strong public pressure from some quarters to stand aside this year and let another candidate run. But he knew he had the necessary Central Committee backing for the nomination, which he won by unanimous vote.

Mr. Peres proclaimed in his campaign that his efforts would be centered on repairing Israel's battered economy.

''You don't have to take everything he says seriously,'' a longtime associate said. ''But if he says he's going to transform Israeli industry into the most sophisticated in the world, take it seriously.''

A version of this article appears in print on August 6, 1984, on Page A00008 of the National edition with the headline: MAN IN THE NEWS; ISRAELI MODEL OF ENDURANCE: SHIMON PERES. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe